César Baldaccini (1921-1998) France

César Baldaccini was a French artist and sculptor. He grew up in Marseille, France, and with his Italian parents. After César Baldaccini studied at the renowned art school École des Beaux-Arts, both in Marseille and later in Paris, he worked primarily in sculpture.

Baldaccini started creating sculptures by welding together pieces of discarded metal or rubbish, and was recognized for his art when he welded together metal in the shape of insects and animals in 1952. Baldaccini became a well-renowned French sculptor in 1960 when he began to make compressions by compressing car bodies into dense packages. He later stopped working with metal in 1966, and started making sculptures in various plastics instead, which he poured into different kinds of molds.